She's 1!

Today our sweet baby turned 1!  Lila has been such a joy to our family and I wish I could keep her from growing any bigger.

A few things I want to remember about our sweet girl:
-She adores her rowdy brothers and doesn't know what to do when they aren't around entertaining her with their craziness
-She isn't walking yet, but she did take 3 steps tonight.
-She likes most foods, except for cake and icing
-Her first word was bay.........be and she LOVES her baby
-She is a pretty chill baby unless you take away her baby
-She is a good sleeper, unless she has an ear infection which is pretty frequently
-Her grandma K thinks she speaks noisemaker because she likes to make swishing sounds when we turn her noisemaker on
-She likes most strangers
-When she is excited she clenches her fists, smiles, and shakes (like the picture below)
-We love her more each day!

They are growing up so fast...

I made this slideshow for our families far away to fill in the gap for the past 6 months of blogging hiatus.  It made me realize how quickly my munchkins are growing up...... sniff, sniff.

She is my happy

Happy Easter!!

A Little Laugh...Compliments of Ollie

I have to share a little exchange Ollie and I had the other night.  Hope it makes you laugh, I'll be repeating this story at his wedding dinner.

Two nights ago I was putting Ollie to bed.  I laid down next time him and he turned his body towards the wall and here's the conversation that followed:

Ollie: "Don't look at me"
Dad: "Ollie, don't pick your nose"
Ollie: "Don't look at me"
Dad: "Ollie, don't pick your nose" (in a little more serious voice)
Ollie: "Dad, I'm not going to eat it, I'm just going to wipe it on you"

I then fell off the bed laughing and I think Ollie took care of business while I wasn't looking.

Family resemblance??

You may remember after Ollie was born I compared Ollie and Doug's baby pictures here. I thought I'd add Lila to the mix.  She reminds me so much of Ollie with her super blue eyes and kissable lips.  I LOVE my chubby babies!!

Hair

I possess two baby pictures of myself (i guess my parents figured after four daughters that if you've seen one you've seen them all;)) In both pictures I have this darling little curl on the top of my head. I tried to recreate that curl on lila, but it came out a little more mohawk looking.  Nevertheless I thought it would be a good time to document her darling headful of hair. 

Sidenote- Ladd tried to keep me from taking these pictures because she "looks like a boy". So sweet that he's so protective of his sister's image already:)

Blessing Day and Grandpa's Visit

We were so lucky to have Grandpa Brad visit us for Lila's blessing weekend.  The weekend was full of grandpa telling stories and playing indians with the boys and Lila got lots of cuddling time with him.  We also went to the Mill City Museum and learned about some of Minneapolis' roots- surprisingly a very fun museum for kids and adults. Doug gave Lila a beautiful baby blessing in the same blessing dress my sisters and I all wore.  It was a wonderful weekend!

(Try not to notice that Lila is not actually wearing the dress- we didn't manage to get any pictures the day of her blessing - bad parents!!)

We love you Grandpa Brad, come back soon!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!

Disclaimer- Doug thought this was really cheesy and "grandma-y" looking.  In my defense I took this picture intending to share it with grandmas.  So grandmas please enjoy:) And everyone else please ignore the cheesiness.

Today

Tomorrow Lila will be two months old.  I can't believe how fast this time has flown by.  I've tried to enjoy every moment of her newborness- knowing that she is quickly turning into a baby.

  

She is eating like a champ and it appears that she is on track to be just as chunky as her brothers.  She loves to sleep. She has been sleeping best in her car seat because she has been congested.  Two nights ago she slept for a 7.5 hours stretch and I felt like a million bucks all day.  Hoping this turns into a routine soon.

I've been tickled with all of her dark hair, but I've also learned it comes with a price.  She regularly has a matted mess on the back of her head and she has taken to pulling her own hair.  The latter is pretty funny.... I mean sad.  She does it when she's sleeping, awake, happy, or sad, and it always results in a shrieking cry and me trying to pry her hair loose from her super-strong infant grip.  We've found that putting socks on her hands is a must at night or she will wake herself and us up several times.  

Ladd thought Lila fit right in with his stuffed animals.

Barely Enough Snow...

Snow hasn't been a very common site here in MN this year.  Not sure how many inches we've received but I'm pretty sure we had storms last year that beat our total for this winter.  We got about 2 inches the other day and we had to go play.  Doug can't go sledding without making a jump...the boys loved it!

Ollie didn't mind hanging out, our 20 ft hill is exhausting to walk up

Ladd was standing by our jump so I could meter with our camera

Ladd loved every second of it

I'm sure it felt like a lot of air:)

Ollie wasn't quite as sure about it...

until he had lift off.  Though he probably liked the hot chocolate afterwards even more

Smitten

Lila started smiling about two weeks ago and we are completely smitten.

These were taken today (7 weeks old).  We still have to work pretty hard to get her to smile, but it is so rewarding.

One of her favorite faces to pull.

Pretty sweet even when she's not smiling.

  

Grandma Karen's Visit

Grandma Karen came just in time to give me and Doug a little respite.  We were both so exhausted because Lila was getting up countless times each night and Ollie thought he'd follow suit.  She was seriously our saving grace the week she spent here.  The kids of course loved her visit too.

Happy early birthday Grandma Karen!!

 Yummy treats from Chez Arnaud.

Other sweet pictures while she was here.

I love me some sleeping pictures.  Look at those kissable lips.